HUA Divided Over Funding Career Fair for Boston Schools

The Harvard Undergraduate Association passed two proposals but remained divided over another during its general meeting Monday evening.

The HUA’s Social Life Team passed a proposal allocating $1,200 towards an enhanced brain break to welcome first-year students back to campus after spring break. Dubbed Sunday Sundae, the event will take place on March 21 in Annenberg.

The Inclusion and Wellbeing Team also passed the Helping Hand Grant, which will grant $420 to the Queer Undergraduate Interfaith Community for funding speaking panels, tarot refuge events, and coffee chats.

HUA Social Life Officer Jonathan Haileselassie ’26 reported that the association’s ice skating event held last week was popular among participants.

“Our HUA ice skating event was really successful,” Haileselassie said. “We took around 37 to 40 students and they really seemed to enjoy how it went.”

“We might make it a recurring event — not the ice skating itself, but a recurring HUA social outing every two or three weeks,” he said.

The last proposal of the night, however, sparked tense debate and did not pass.

Presented by the HUA’s Academic Team, the proposal sought HUA funding for a March 29 career fair jointly hosted by the Boston Intercollegiate Government — a group of undergraduates from local colleges — and Harvard Mignone Center for Career Success that will allow students from Boston-area schools to interact with employers and learn about jobs and internships.

Eunice S. Chon ’26, an Academic Project Team lead, said the proposal asks the HUA to provide $600 for the event, which BIG would use to purchase “smaller finger foods” for attendees.

Chon advocated for the proposal, pointing to recently released decisions from the IOP Director’s Internship program.

“I know a lot of friends who got rejected from the director internship program this past month,” she said. “They’re very anxious about what they’re doing over summer.”

Though Haileselassie said he supported the career fair and recognized the event’s importance, he argued against the HUA providing funding without receiving anything in return.

“I really want to make this happen,” he said before the vote, “but I think in terms of funding the event, I will be for a solution that is we give them $600 for it to happen, and then from the profit, they just give us back that $600.”

The discussion ended with the voting members present split — four in support, four against. Without majority support, the proposal did not pass.

In an interview after the meeting, Haileselassie said he “wasn’t comfortable” with the HUA being “the sole funding source for an event with multiple Boston schools that are collaborating.”

Haileselassie also said he would need a better understanding of “how many Harvard students are going to be impacted” to support the proposal.

“We want to make sure that all of the funding that we receive is being maximized for Harvard students,” he said.

Chon said while she understood Haileselassie’s fiscal argument, she disagreed that the HUA should receive compensation in return for supporting the event.

After the proposal failed to pass, Academic Team Officer Peter E. Chon ’26 said he would personally finance the event’s food.

“I will be putting $600 of my own money because the HUA has decided, fairly, that they will not,” he said.

In an interview after the meeting, Chon said he is partially funding the event “on the grounds that the HUA does not get credit for this, because I do not think we have done enough.”

During the meeting, Peter and Eunice Chon said the Harvard College Dean of Students Office’s support for the event factored into their proposal for HUA funding.

“The DSO seems to agree. They were the ones who said, ‘Okay, let’s get some money for food, for catering,’” Peter Chon said before voting occurred.

“We usually heed their advice when it comes to how we spend money,” he added. “If they are fine with it, I don’t see why we should have so much trouble funding finger foods.”

Correction: March 5, 2024

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Helping Hand Grant was passed by the Social Life Team. In fact, it was a project of the Inclusion and Wellbeing Team.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.

—Staff writer William Y. Tan can be reached at william.tan@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @william_y_tan.